Tuesday, October 05, 2010

EUROPE TOUR Part 3


As we arrived at our hotel for the night in Zagreb, several thousand suckers exited the conference centre - opposite the hotel - where they had attended a Godbothering (give them your money & they'll save your soul kinda thing) meeting. They blocked the hotel entrance, the reception desk & the parking lot.
We were not amused.
Thankfully they cleared off within half an hour.

The day before we arrived in Zagreb, several rivers had flooded due to torrential rain. It was heartbreaking to see heaps of fields of crops & grazing land badly flooded.

A street, hastily snapped whilst riding through Slovenia. At least it wasn't raining.

We got stuck in a traffic jam, which trailed back friggin' miles. There was no warning of what the problem was & traffic in the opposite direction was flowing smoothly. Like everyone else, we sat & fumed for an hour. Turns out the roadwork crew decided to close the lane completely. Arseholes.

On the road again...........Salzburg here we come!

With the exception of our hotel in Prague, every hotel we stayed in during the tour, classified the above as a 'double'. It's 2 single beds pushed together, not a double! And what's with the sleeping bag style duvet? Duvets were folded width-wise on the bed, which essentially meant you have to shake it out & lay it the long way on the bed, before climbing into yer perch.
Europeans are strange people.

The scenery just outside of Salzburg was stunning - incredible mountains & lush green grass - what a pleasure!

'Mirror' gardens at Hellbrunn Palace. In true German/Austrian precision, each side of the garden has been created/landscaped to be the perfect image of the opposite side.

In the heart of Salzburg, the rather splendid gardens of the Mirabell Palace are open to the public to mosey around. The gardens are absolutely awesome. I could've quite happily stayed there for several days, perhaps reading a good book, or maybe doing a spot of people watching. (Gawd, there are some weird folk about!)

Fabulous scenery, on the road from Salzburg to Nuremberg. (Please note my keyboard doesn't have a key with 2 little dots that sit on top of letters, so I couldn't spell the city the other way - Nurnberg)

On our trusty steed at the Harley dealer in Nuremberg.

When we eventually arrived back in Berlin, the heavens opened again & that, along with rotgut courtesy of a dodgy kebab, made doing touristy things a bit unpleasant. We managed to get a taxi, which took us to Checkpoint Charlie but a big chunk of the city became 'out of bounds' thanks to the Berlin Marathon.

Hubs & myself next to the most misquoted phrase in Germany. Gotta love it!

On the whole, we had a great tour with good friends - the weather for the first 4 days was really kak - it rained buckets & was bloody cold. From the 5th day onwards, the sun came out & it made riding so much nicer. I personally was really impressed with the standard of driving by cagers & truckers throughout each country - they're courteous towards bikers, which makes a nice change. I detested the attitude of the locals in Bratislava yet fell in love with the friendliness of people in Salzburg. We rode through other major towns/cities, such as Brno & Munich & generally took in as much as we could see, given the limited time available. We bought Harley T-shirts in every dealership we visited, which meant that we came home pretty loaded down! (Fridge magnets don't take up much space!)

Finally, I really must give a plug to a guy who has started up an invaluable service. Parking at airports can be really costly. We weren't in the position to get friends to drop us off, so we had to take T2 to the airport. A friend of mine here in Schleppalale, told me about a new parking service at Oliver Tampon Airport (aka Joburg International). Martin, from S U Parking will collect your vehicle from the airport, store it in a secure warehouse & be at the airport to meet you on your return. I made arrangements with him beforehand & I couldn't have asked for better service. He was waiting for us at the airport before our departure & had T2 ready & waiting for us on our arrival back from the tour. In total, it cost us ZAR640 for the collection, storage & delivery of T2, which is less than 50% of what it would have cost us if we'd left the bike in the actual airport carpark.

Labels: Berlin, Brno, Harley Davidson, Munich, Nuremberg, Salzburg, SU Parking at Joburg Airport, Zagreb

Posted by Jayne :: 10:41 :: 8 Had Somminc To Say

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Friday, May 07, 2010

SUN, SAND, SEA & A WHOLE HEAP OF HARLEYS

We arrived in Margate absolutely knackered! The 1010km trip took 12hrs, thanks to the bastard roadworks on the highways outside Pretoria & Joburg. (I'll be so glad when this fuckin' Soccer World Cup is over & bloody done with! All the upgrading of existing roads is a bloody nightmare.) We started passing bikes shortly after we hit the N3 (Durban highway) & the closer we got to the coast, the more bikes there were.
After unhitching T2 at the spot where we'd booked in, we set off in search of food. Not long after that, we hit the perch & it was a case of sinking into a welcome coma for the next 8hrs!

The following day - Friday - we rode into town to suss out what was happening in 'Harley Street'. Oh my gawd, what a pleasure! The powers-that-be closed off the main street which ran the length of the beachfront & it became Harley Heaven! There were bikes, dealer showrooms & tents, local tourist traders & more bikes. Despite this being a HOG rally, all makes of bike were welcome to attend.
(I gotta admit though, that the sight of someone wearing Hells Angels South Africa colours, riding a rice rocket, literally made me cringe.)

Harley Street (aka Marine Parade) - the street where everyone sussed out everyone elses bike!


The gathering of bikes at the Shelly Centre on Sunday morning, in preparation for the mass ride.


The above 2 photos were of the mass ride - from Shelly Beach to Margate. Despite the departures being staggered, the later departures made up the rear of a solid 9km 'train' of bikes. Bloody awesome!

Harley Street in full swing - heaps of peeps & heaps of bikes.

Preparing to leave the Shelly Centre.

Hubs & I took a ride out to Oribi Gorge, less than 40km away. The scenery was stunning. What made it nicer was we took our hemets off in the gorge - what a pleasure to hear the birds & critter, plus the dulcet tones of T2 :-)




The above 3 photos were all taken from the spot where we stayed. It was so peaceful - even with the roar of hundreds of bikes passing by at regular intervals - & the outlook was really beautiful.
Nice paint jobby - gets the message across quite eloquently dontcha think?
A vintage BMW with sidecar - I like the mounted machine gun.........I bet no one even thinks of road-rage when they see that........hehehe

There were several trikes at the rally & as much as I like them, I didn't come across a single one that retained any of the original bike power. I liked the paint jobby on this one though.

T2, parked up by the front door of our chalet. Any closer & I could've sat on her to watch TV at night! Thumbs up to the management of Villa del Sol, who accommodated the bikes & bikers with great service.



New screen on T2...............I'm not exactly a 'skull theme' type of dumb blonde, but I gotta admit I really liked this screen when I first saw it, so Hubs got for T2

I got me some new ink done whilst I was in town. There were at least 3 tattooists in Margate, but I waited until the town had quietend down before making an appointment. I took a good book with me & only said "oww" once. Less than 45mins later & I was all done - what a pleasure! (The new ink is a medical warning that I take a blood thinner & tend to bleed profusely when cut)

Overall, there was only one thing that truly pissed on my battery during the rally & that was seeing a lovely blue TriGlide (the HD trike) on proud display in the Harley Davidson main showroom. I could've wept honestly, as (for the 1 or 2 regular readers of my drivel will know) I've wanted one for months & months. The dealership we dealt with when we first came back to SA told us a heap of bollocks & we ended up buying T2, an Ultra Classic Limited. Don't get me wrong, T2 is a fabulous bike & we're very happy with her, but the TriGlide was always my dream. Fuck em, I'll wait & see what the 2011 bikes are like, cos I'm not prepared to wait several more months to get a TriGlide in the colour I want, plus lose a shitload of dosh on a trade in.
The residents of Margate & surrounding towns deserve a huge 'Thank You' for being such gracious hosts to some 8,000 bikes & more than 20,000 visitors. They lined the roads & waved to everyone on the mass ride out on Sunday & I never heard a single complaint from anyone. I also never saw a single person who was ratarse (in public) or who caused any form of (annoying) disturbance. That to me, is a major compliment to everyone who attended.

Hubs got to finish his dissertation - YAY! - so we have to wait now until sometime in June for the results. I helped him as much as I could, but that was mostly by making sure he was kept well fed & watered. Mind you, what I know about Economic Duress (the subject of his thesis) nowadays is quite inspiring!

Next on the agenda: deciding where to bugger off to in July, cos I sure as hell don't want to be here for the fiasco of the Soccer World Cup!

Labels: 2nd All Africa HOG Rally, Harley Davidson, Margate KZN, Oribi Gorg, Villa del Sol

Posted by Jayne :: 10:22 :: 19 Had Somminc To Say

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

AT LEAST ONE OF US REBELS HAS A CLUE

Right then fellow infidels, yours truly & Hubs are outa here for a while. T2 will be loaded shortly (as above) & we shall be heading for the Kwa Zulu Natal coastal town of Margate, to attend the 2nd annual All Africa HOG Rally. Yay gads, I can hardly bloody wait! There will be heaps of hawgs, heaps of peeps & much fun is anticipated.

Before anyone would like to bitch that we're dragging T2 behind the Beemer - like real rich gits - let me explain:
The day before Hubs was due to take study leave over Easter, his employer cancelled sed leave.
It did not go down very well.
Hubs has to knock out a 20,000 word dissertation to complete his Masters degree.
Which he was going to do during the study leave.

*sigh*

Another leave application was submitted & approved, starting tomorrow & allowing additional time to do the necessary dissertation.

Guess what?

Yeah.........a 'really important' meeting was arranged for tomorrow & Hubs was needed to attend.

Over-my-dead-fucking-body!

Violence was threatened.

There is no time left to postpone 5yrs worth of study.
Hubs employer got the message......he couldn't care less if the soddin' president of the country was at the meeting! It has now been postponed.

He is taking his leave & we will be attending the rally, but not in that specific order.

So, the reason we're towing T2 down, instead of riding her, is because we have to schlepp a whole heap of study books, files & stuff, as well as the laptop. It won't all fit in the panniers, hence the car. Hubs has worked long & hard to get where he is. I'm the rebel-without-a-clue, but then I'm blonde, which speaks volumes.....

If we set off by 7am, we'll reach our destination by 5pm insh'allah. If we were to ride, it'd take 2 days & we just don't have the time, cos there's 20,000 very important words at stake here, innit.


Be good folks, do it quietly & have fun while I'm away. I'll hopefully take heaps of photos of various hawgs & if any of the guys want pics from wet T-shirt competitions, kindly remember to put a cheque in the post............

Labels: 2nd All Africa HOG Rally, Harley Davidson, Margate KZN, rebel-without-a-clue

Posted by Jayne :: 11:17 :: 17 Had Somminc To Say

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Friday, December 04, 2009

HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE

Mikey, our good friend & 'Awesome Eight(er)' from Abu Dhabi is currently here for a visit. He brought with heaps of spices, specific sweets, 6 Vanilla scented candles (unobtainable here & always on the go in my spot in the Sandpit), HD Chrome Cleaner & various other things that I'd asked for in an email. Sincere thanks must go to him & muchly missed friend Kaya, who got much of the shopping for Mikey.
(Since buggering around with templates etc. a coupla weeks back, I dunno how to do the link thingy to names & blogs, so forgive me, I am but a Dumb Blonde. I also dunno how to justify the text anymore & it's irritating the crap outa me!)


Mikey hired the new 2010 ElectraGlide Ultra Limited for the duration of his stay here. It's a fabulous (dahhling) bike - so fabulous that we've ordered one. The saga of the order of my TriGlide has now become complicated & no one actually knows when the trike will arrive or even IF it will arrive. I've moaned at the HD dealer & he in turn has moaned to HD USA. It really pisses on my battery that HD USA treats dealerships outside of the USA like poor cousins. There are a shitload of customers within the Middle East & Africa who're waiting for specific bikes, but HD USA can only see fit to send what they THINK people want. In my opinion, they need a serious bloody wake up call. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we've ordered a 'Limited' as well as keeping the original order for the TriGlide. I'll accept whatever gets here first, but if it's the 'Limited' I will go back to being a pillion passenger. (*heart-wrenching sobs*)

So, whilst in the area, Mikey has been riding around, checking out the local scenery. He took this photo a coupla days back. Hubs & I knew the sign was somewhere nearby, but have never seen it........Mikey's here for 48hrs & finds the bloody thing!

Oh well, at least I've got my own 'evidence'! This was taken a coupla weeks back, when we escaped to the Kruger National Park for a long weekend.


This afternoon, we're gapping it through to a private game reserve in the Tuli Block in Botswana, for the weekend. I shall hopefully give y'all a 'report back' on what we did/didn't see :-)

Be good while I'm away.

Labels: Harley Davidson, Mikey does the Last Khaki Outpost, Tropic of Capricorn

Posted by Jayne :: 08:07 :: 8 Had Somminc To Say

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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

THROWING A WOBBLE

I'm the first to admit I'm pretty hopeless at remembering specific dates, but thanks to THIS I knew our 'problem' wasn't very old.

Let me explain..............Hubs, myself & 8 good friends decided to take a run through to Ras al Khaimah for a long weekend. We supposedly were offered a good rate from the new Rotana Cove resort, so plans were made for a getaway. (A review on that will follow shortly. It'll contain much swearing methinks) Anyway, we loaded up Tallulah (my bike) & set off with 2 others riding their Harleys. Apart from numerous rehydration stops (the temperature hit 52C at one stage) our ride was uneventful until about 400m before the entrance to the resort. Tallulah developed a barely controllable wobble & both Hubs & myself knew immediately that we'd felt that same wobble before. Hubs managed to get the bike into the carpark without incident & it remained there until Sunday. On Saturday, Hubs phoned the manager of the Dubai Harley dealership & explained the problem. A recovery vehicle was sent & Tallulah was taken away to be 'fixed'.

This is where I have a problem.

In November last year, after developing the 'first' wobble, 5 different people rode Tallulah & determined there definitely was a problem with the rear wheel. The manager of the Abu Dhabi dealership reckoned there was nothing wrong. On Hubs' insistance that a closer examination be carried out, it was discovered that the lining of the rear tyre had shredded. It cost us Dh1100 to have that tyre replaced, despite the bike still being under warranty. We were told (after the fact & by another customer who'd had his tyre replaced free of charge) that we shouldn't have had to pay, as the tyres allegedly come with a guarantee. Needless to say, we weren't refunded.

Fast forward >>>>>>>>>to a few days ago. When we went to collect the bike from the Dubai dealership, we were told that the tyre had indeed shredded, again. When Hubs said that this was the SECOND time in less than 6mths & only 1800km 'wear' & we shouldn't have to pay for it, he was informed that Dunlop are only guaranteeing their tyres for 50km. After that, it's tough tits. So, after an expensive break, we had to cough up a further Dh1595 to fix a defective tyre, which wasn't our responsibility.

It seems that both the dealerships of Harley Davidson & Dunlop in the Middle East really couldn't give a damn about customer service. In recent months, the Abu Dhabi franchise of Harley Davidson has earned itself a rather tawdry reputation. Shoddy workmanship, poor customer relations & an air of 'take it or leave it' is blatantly obvious. When I enquired recently about reporting a matter to someone further up the food chain - i.e. going higher than the store manager/area manager, I was told I couldn't - simple as that. No one gets as far as the franchise holder - in my opinion, the person who is ultimately responsible for running a successful world renowned brand.

Gawd forbid anyone should complain to the Al Masaood Group.

It's way too busy raking in the dosh.

Update - Monday 15th June

Dunlop responded to an email Hubs sent linking to this post. Their response is as follows:

"For the UK, bar ride issues which are within first 10% of tread life Dunlop motorbike Tyre warranty is 5 years. Any allowances are % based on remaining legal tread depth.

Regards

Peter Wayte

Product Support & Service"

Well at least Dunlop had the decency to respond & I sincerely thank them for that. I'll be taking his letter to Harley Davidson. Stay tuned!

Labels: crappy Dunlop tyres, Harley Davidson, kak en betaal, piss poor service

Posted by Jayne :: 08:54 :: 7 Had Somminc To Say

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